State AGs get in the game on Comcast Merger — Graham to into online gambling bill — DMCA talks kick off today

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STATE AGs GET IN THE GAME ON COMCAST MERGER — Tony’s got the story: “State attorneys general are jumping in to examine Comcast’s plan to purchase Time Warner Cable — while Comcast and its opponents back in Washington stock up for the political battle over the deal...Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and a ‘multistate group’ plan to conduct a review of the $45 billion transaction alongside the Justice Department and FCC, a spokeswoman for Bondi’s office said Wednesday.” (Other states in the group include Maryland and California, while Pennsylvania is doing its own look.)

“The state inquiry adds a new wrinkle for Comcast, which is trying to convince D.C. lawmakers and regulators that its acquisition of Time Warner Cable will not stifle cable and broadband competition. The company, which faced similar state scrutiny ahead of its 2011 purchase of NBCUniversal, declined to comment.” http://politico.pro/1hCNKMQ

—PLUS, COMCAST INKS BLOOM: Former top aide to the Senate antitrust subcommittee Seth Bloom has been retained by Comcast, according to a March 18 lobbying disclosure. Bloom launched Bloom Strategic Counsel a year ago after departing the Hill, and will focus on “competition issues” for the firm.

—AND, FRANKEN PUSHES AGAIN: The junior senator from Minnesota wants the DOJ to examine how the Comcast-TWC merger would affect Comcast’s net neutrality commitments, he said in a letter Wednesday. Comcast, which is finding Franken as one of the leading merger opponents on Capitol Hill, said in a statement that the deal will boost the level of consumers subject to the FCC’s Open Internet rules, and added it expects the agency to have new rules in place by 2018, when Comcast’s previous net neutrality commitments expire.

FIRST LOOK: CDD RE-UPS ON DISNEY COPPA COMPLAINT — The Center for Digital Democracy is sending a new complaint to the FTC this morning alleging that a Disney-backed website is continuing to run afoul of the agency’s new child-protecting COPPA rule. CDD initial complained to the FTC last December, arguing that Marvelkids.com (run by a subsidiary of Disney) didn’t provide proper notice before collecting personal info about child users. Now, the group says Disney changed its privacy policy soon after the December complaint — but says that content giant still violates COPPA by allowing third-party advertisers to collect information. Further, the FTC should actually look at all of Disney’s kid-directed sites in search of COPPA problems, the group argues. The FTC updated its COPPA rule in December 2012, and changes went into effect last summer, even as many app-makers and website-owners said they weren’t given enough time to get up to speed with the regulatory changes. More here: http://bit.ly/1l4Hh2A

GOOD THURSDAY MORNING and welcome to Morning Tech, where we’re moving fast this morning to make sure we fill out a respectable NCAA bracket before today’s games start. We know you won't be doing much work today, but MT is an all-the-time operation, so don’t forget to touch base with your tech and telecom tips at abyers@politico.com and @byersalex. And catch the rest of the team’s contact info after speed read.

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DMCA TALKS KICKOFF TODAY — NTIA and the patent office host their first workshop today on improving the impact of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The morning discussion will focus on substantive changes like how to deal with repeat takedown notices or misused takedowns, while the latter half of the day will be directed toward figuring out a process for moving forward. Full agenda here: http://1.usa.gov/1opCAiU

But don’t expect anything big to get worked out today — especially since a lot of the issues that may be at hand are some of the harder online infringement questions that the tech and content industries have been tackling. “All that we can reasonably expect is to begin a process that will bear fruit in the future. We can start an affirmative, constructive dialogue about how to improve notice and takedown and how we might structure this group’s work,” NTIA Deputy Assistant Secretary Angela Simpson, who will deliver remarks in the morning, is expected to say. “We can begin to explore, civilly and with open minds, the possible areas that might lead to future work and eventual consensus. Our goal today is to begin a journey together, not to reach a destination.” We’re tracking.

GRAHAM TO INTRO BILL TO BAN INTERNET GAMBLING — POLITICO’s Anna Palmer and Burgess Everett report: “Sen. Lindsey Graham is giving a little help to his friend — Republican mega donor Sheldon Adelson. Graham is expected to introduce a bill to ban Internet gambling as soon as next week, according to sources working on the issue.Adelson launched a coalition late last year to ban online gaming. The billionaire casino mogul promised to use his fortune to push the issue, arguing that it is not good for society and could hurt the traditional business model of casinos...Historically, Internet gambling has not been a foremost concern of the deal-cutting Graham, though he has been working to beef up his conservative credentials in advance of the 2014 election. For instance, last year he took the lead on a federal 20-week abortion ban bill widely supported by social conservatives.” http://politi.co/1l4KNKh

NSA OFFICIAL REITERATES: TECH FIRMS KNEW ABOUT DATA COLLECTION — Tech companies who give information to the NSA under FISA’s section 702 were aware of the agency’s data collection efforts, NSA General Counsel Rajesh De said at yesterday’s PCLOB hearing. The exchange with PCLOB member Jim Dempsey meshes with statements made by tech companies after the original PRISM stories and earlier reports — namely, that tech companies did respond to legal requests for data but were not familiar with the insider name “PRISM.” De said that PRISM was simply in an internal term used by the government.

SENATE COMMERCE SCHEDULES DATA SECURITY HEARING — Sen. Jay Rockefeller is going to hold yet another congressional hearing on data security next week, his panel announced Wednesday. No word on who might be invited to testify, but the pow-wow will examine some of the data security bills that have been introduced in the wake of Target and Neiman Marcus breaches — including Rockefeller’s, presumably — the announcement said. The hearing’s set for next Wednesday, but no word yet on that delayed Commerce markup that Rockefeller told us would come back next week.

BROADCASTERS, CABLE SPAR ON ADVERTISING COLLUSION — Under fire for what opponents call anticompetitive behavior in their own industry, broadcasters sought to reverse that attack Wednesday with a petition to the FCC to investigate cable advertising agreements. The National Association of Broadcasters told the agency — as they told lawmakers at last week’s STELA hearing — that the so-called “interconnect” advertising deals allow several pay TV companies to sell ads together, thereby eliminating competition for ad revenue.

NCTA, the largest cable lobbying group, didn’t push back in a statement against the broadcasters’ argument — but did call it a ruse designed to distract from FCC efforts to clamp down on broadcaster sharing agreements. “NAB’s latest attack is an unfortunate and desperate attempt to divert attention from examination of discrete broadcast ownership issues,” NCTA boss Michael Powell said. “This collateral attack on pay TV providers should be seen for what it is — a transparent stunt to muddy the waters and confuse the issue.”

SPEED READ

IBM EYES BIG DATA IN FRAUD FIGHT: The firm is announcing a new effort to combat different kinds of fraud by levering large data sets, the New York Times reports: http://goo.gl/XU7zvD

DISH GETS OSHA FINE: The firm is said to have blacklisted an employee who blew the whistle on a fraudulent vendor. DSL Reports with more: http://bit.ly/1enNpi4

LARRY PAGE: DON’T OVERLOOK BENEFITS OF SHARING: With all the privacy talk these days, it’s important to remember what can happen when info gets shared properly, he says. Recode with more: http://on.recode.net/1enNQco

GOOGLE TOLD TO PAY $85M IN PATENT CASE: The search giant had been fighting with a texas licensing company over how much they should pay in a patent infringement case, Bloomberg reports: http://bloom.bg/1enO6rO

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